Ginny's Dream
by Veggiechick
Summary: Even years after the second wizarding war, fear is still a constant houseguest at the Potters. Rated K because I think all the nine-year-olds out there can handle it.


_**Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series even though it pretty much owns me.**_

Ginny could feel her lungs turning to ice as she ran through the Forbidden Forest. Something was chasing after her—something worse than werewolves, worse than centaurs, worse than Hagrid's half-brother. It was _her _brother, Fred.

"Fred is dead," Ginny rationalized. "But Fred is also chasing me." This she knew. She could hear him clumsily crashing through the brush, calling out to her almost incoherently. His mangled face in turn mangled his speech, but she heard and understood every word.

"Ginny…_Ginny_…my little sister…why didn't you help me? You were cowering in the Room of Requirement…that's why…"

"No Fred!" she called, slowing. "No! I left, I fought, and I tried! I tried!"

"Only because Harry _forced_ you out—forced you from that coward's bunker. You didn't try hard enough, Ginny…not enough…" Fred reached her and caught her up in an embrace, but it did not feel like the usual hug she received from her brother.

"Let me go, Fred. I tried, I swear I tried!"

His arms wrapped tighter and tighter…and then let go.

And suddenly Fred was Nymphadora Tonks. Ginny almost laughed in relief.

"Tonks! Oh, Tonks, Teddy misses you so much…" Then she noticed that Tonks eyes, usually dancing with life, were expressionless and cold, empty of the fondness with which she usually looked at Ginny.

"Teddy…my only child is alone in the world, because of you, Ginny."

"What, no, Tonks—"

"You should have stayed in that room with me. You should have kept me there. You knew I was a mother…"

"Tonks, no, I did the right thing! D-didn't I?"

"Whatever you did Ginny, it wasn't enough…"

Then Tonks was on the ground, but it wasn't Tonks—it was Harry. Her harry—The Boy Who Lived…The Boy Who Was Dead…

Ginny knelt down to shake him, unable to form words at this fresh horror. Hagrid stepped up besides her, sobbing uncontrollably. He blew his nose in his enormous hanky.

"Yer could have saved him Ginny! Yer could've talked 'im out o'givin' hisself up to You-Know-Who. And now he's dead."

As Ginny finally succumbed to heart-wrenching sobs, he continued.

"Don't you cry! Don't yer dare cry…It's all yer fault…all of them…all yer fault…"

There was a CRACK and Ginny looked above just in time to see a large branch fall on her head.

CRACK!

Ginny sat bolt upright in bed to an enormous peal of thunder—she had woken just in time to see the room illuminated by a jagged line of lightening.

"Harry? Harry!" She panicked, still seeing the image of a dead Harry

"Hey, love, no worries. I'm right here." Harry stepped away from the window where he was watching the storm. Ginny's breath caught in her throat as another flash of lightning made him look like that pale, flat, and dead Harry from her dream.

"Gin? What is it?" He turned on the bedside lamp and was once again The Boy Who Was _Alive. _He saw her face and guessed, "Nightmare?"

Ginny could only nod.

"Want to talk about it?"

Ginny hesitated for a long while, and then nodded slowly. Harry climbed back into bed with her and wrapped her small frame securely in his arms. She rested her head on his chest and felt safer. He waited for her to start. After a while, she did.

"It was Fred…well, at first…he was chasing me through the Forbidden Forest, and—and he blamed me for his death. Said I could have done more, shouldn't have hid away in the Room of Requirement."

"Ginny—"

"And then," she cut him off. If she didn't say it all now then it would hurt worse to say it later. She continued to talk in a monotone, robot-like voice. "And then he was Tonks. Blaming me for _her_ dying. Said I knew she was a mother…should have stopped her leaving."

Harry kept silent, waiting his turn.

"And then," Ginny's voice was barely over a whisper now, "It was you—dead. Like when Hagrid brought you out of the forest, limp in his arms. And Hagrid blamed me…for you. Said that I should h-have stopped you…and I sh-should have. I d-don't-t k-know w-why…" Ginny petered off into weeping, her monotone façade completely broken.

"Ginny, you don't truly believe that those deaths were your fault do you?"

"Maybe…not really. But sometimes I just think…I don't have a twin, or a baby. So why was I allowed to escape that night and not them or so many others? It should have been me, rather than them.

Harry was silent a beat. And then,

"Don't ever say that. You have me, Gin—me who would have been beyond sad, beyond heartbroken…I would have gone insane if you were dead, Gin. Through every plan, every fight, every encounter while we were on the run I thought of you. I thought if I could just make it through all of that I could go home…to you."

"Oh, Harry…"

"Don't 'oh, Harry' me. I love you and I'm immensely glad that you didn't die." Harry sighed, closed his eyes, and rested his head on the headboard. Ginny could feel her cheek slip on the tears still upon his chest. "Tonks and Fred. What happened to them was…" he shuddered a bit "the fault of one horrendous man. But they died so that others could have a chance at a decent life. They died so others could live and love. They died for us, Gin, and we owe it to them to live.

After long moments, so long that Harry thought Ginny might have fallen asleep again, he felt small, soft lips against his own. He opened his eyes and looked into the big brown ones near his.

"You're right," she said, then slid down under the covers. Harry followed suit, draping his arm across her middle. She covered his arm with her own and laced her fingers through his.

"Harry?"

"Hm?"

"I love you. So much."

"Love you too. Always."


End file.
